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Germany isn't entirely peopled by deadly serious ST owners with mono monitors; there are some people who play games, and even write them. Turrican is German, and it's now out on budget.

Usual stuff: run about the scrolling landscape blasting everything you clap eyes on, collect the power-ups to power up, and stay out of trouble. The graphics initially look little more than average but, after playing the game for a bit, you notice how smooth the scrolling is, how well the main character moves, and the excellent detailed shading on the background. The sky gets darket as you progress into the underground caves too.

Turrican is still an excellent shoot-'em-up, though it does seem to suffer somewhat from a lack of character. Everything is well programmed, but the game has no soul. If, however, you couldn't give a flying semiprint if a game has soul or not, you'll be at home here. There's carnage aplenty, it's not too hard, and there's a huge world to explore. A classic blaster.

1. About as original as Alexei Sayle's Stuff but great fun nevertheless. Compare it with Turrican 2 - this one stands up well.